Location: City Lord's Manor – The Main Gate
The air in front of the gate was heavy, smelling of ozone and cheap wine.
Li Mu sat on the stone steps, blocking the entrance. He didn't look like a warrior; he looked like a vagrant.
Opposite him stood the City Lord (Foundation Establishment - Mid Stage). He was floating on a disk of green light, surrounded by fifty armored guards.
"Beggar!" The City Lord's voice boomed. "You assaulted the Coin Shrine. Now you block my gate? Do you seek death?"
Li Mu yawned, scratching his ear. "I seek quiet. My student is inside... 'browsing.' We will leave when he finds what he needs."
"Inside?!" The City Lord turned pale. "The Vault! Guards, kill this drunkard! I will handle the intruder!"
The City Lord formed a hand seal. A massive Fireball materialized above his head, roaring with the heat of a furnace.
Li Mu sighed. "Children playing with matches."
He didn't move. He simply looked at the fireball.
[Golden Core Pressure: 5% Output]
A wave of invisible force slammed into the courtyard. It wasn't wind; it was sheer spiritual density.
POOF.
The fireball didn't explode; it was snuffed out like a candle in a hurricane. The City Lord dropped out of the air, slamming onto the pavement. The fifty guards fell to their knees, gasping for air, pinned by gravity that shouldn't exist.
Li Mu took a drink. "I said... we will leave when he is done. Don't make me repeat myself."
Location: The Manor Roof
Lin Fan moved across the tiles like a shadow.
[Seal 2: Sovereign's Blueprint – Active]
The manor was a grid of blue lines in his vision. He saw the guards collapsed at the front gate. He saw the heat signature of the Golem dormant in the basement.
"The Beggar is holding the front door," Lin Fan whispered to Su Mei over the comms. "We have a ten-minute window before the City Lord breaks the suppression or calls the Imperial Army."
Lin Fan placed the Resonance Cutter on the roof tiles above the Vault. The device hummed, vibrating the molecules of the stone until they turned into sand. A perfect hole opened up.
He dropped a grapple line and lowered himself into the darkness.
Location: The Garden Hallway
Zhang Wei was not moving like a shadow. He was moving like a train wreck.
He sprinted through the garden, his chest heaving. He was trying to replicate the rhythm Li Mu had shown him.
Thump-thump... Thump-thump...
"Come on," Zhang Wei gasped, clutching his chest. "Faster."
He tried to force his heart rate up, but without the discipline, it just felt like a panic attack. His vision swam. His limbs felt heavy. He wasn't entering "First Gear"; he was just hyperventilating.
He crashed through the window of the hallway, tumbling onto the carpet and cutting his arm on the glass.
He scrambled up, blood dripping from his arm. He saw the massive Vault Door. It was locked.
"Open..." Zhang Wei wheezed.
He didn't have a technique. He just had desperation. He remembered Li Mu punching the wall. Oxygen. Muscles.
He took a deep, jagged breath, holding it until his lungs burned. He swung the rusty axe with everything he had.
CLANG.
The axe head snapped off. The handle splintered. The door didn't even scratch.
"Useless!" Zhang Wei screamed. He threw the broken handle away.
He looked at the stone wall holding the door frame. He began to pound it with his bare fists, screaming to force the adrenaline into his veins.
Thump... CRACK.
The masonry gave way. Not because of a secret art, but because he was breaking his own knuckles to do it. The heavy door groaned, unhinged by the destruction of the frame, and fell inward.
The Vault Encounter
The Vault was silent.
Lin Fan was already there. He stood by the pedestal, inspecting the Thunder Steel Spear. He held a scanner in his hand.
Zhang Wei stumbled in, his hands bloody, his breath rattling.
"You," Zhang Wei wheezed.
Lin Fan looked up. He saw the broken axe handle. He saw the bleeding knuckles.
"You broke the door frame," Lin Fan noted, his voice flat. "And you injured yourself doing it. The efficiency of a barbarian."
"Get away... from the Spear," Zhang Wei took a step forward, but his legs wobbled. The "Thunder Breathing" attempt had drained him.
"I'm scanning it," Lin Fan said, not even drawing his weapon. "You look like you're about to pass out, Hero. Did you forget to breathe?"
Zhang Wei roared and charged. It was clumsy. Slow.
Lin Fan simply stepped to the side. He stuck out a foot.
Zhang Wei tripped, crashing into a display case of porcelain vases.
"You have raw stats," Lin Fan analyzed, looking at the data stream in his eyes. "But you have zero control. You are red-lining your engine without knowing how to shift gears."
Lin Fan turned back to the Spear. "I have the data. You can have the—"
CLICK.
The floor rumbled.
The City Lord, pinned outside, had managed to crush a Jade Talisman in his pocket.
[Emergency Protocol: ACTIVATED] [Guardian Unit: DEPLOYING]
The floor beneath the Spear opened up.
A massive hand made of Spirit Bronze shot up, grabbing the pedestal. The floor tiles retracted, revealing a ten-foot-tall Golem rising from the mechanism.
Its eyes glowed red. It looked at Lin Fan. Then at Zhang Wei.
"Intruders," the Golem's voice was grinding gears. "Terminate."
The Struggle
Lin Fan reacted instantly. He drew the Desert Eagle and fired.
BANG-BANG.
Two shots hit the Golem's eye. Sparks flew. The bronze didn't even dent.
"Spirit Armor," Lin Fan cursed. "Physical immunity."
The Golem swung a massive fist. Lin Fan rolled backward, using a grappling hook to zip up to a chandelier.
Zhang Wei wasn't so lucky. He was on the floor. The Golem raised a foot to crush him.
"Move!" Lin Fan shouted, firing at the Golem's knee to draw aggro.
The Golem hesitated.
Zhang Wei looked at the Thunder Steel Spear which had fallen near the Golem's foot.
I need a weapon.
He scrambled forward. He grabbed the spear.
ZZZZZT!
The Spear rejected him. It was charged with lightning. Pain shot up Zhang Wei's arm. It felt like holding a live wire.
"Argh!" Zhang Wei screamed, but he didn't let go.
"Let go, idiot!" Lin Fan yelled from the ceiling. "It's frying your nervous system!"
"No!" Zhang Wei gritted his teeth. "Master said... I need a conductor!"
He remembered the feeling of Li Mu's heartbeat. The humming engine.
Zhang Wei closed his eyes. He stopped fighting the pain. He tried to match his heart to the frequency of the shock.
Thump-thump... ZZZT... Thump-thump...
He wasn't mastering the technique. He was barely surviving it. His heart rate spiked dangerously—not controlled, but erratic.
[Warning: Cardiac Stress Critical]
"AAAAHHH!" Zhang Wei screamed, forcing his body to stand up. The electricity arced from the spear into his veins. He wasn't holding the lightning; the lightning was holding him.
The Golem lunged at him.
Zhang Wei didn't use a martial art. He didn't use "Flash Step." He just thrust the spear forward in a blind panic.
CRUNCH.
The tip of the spear hit the Golem's bronze chest.
Normally, it would bounce off. But the spear was conducting the massive electrical surge from Zhang Wei's overclocking heart.
BOOM!
The electricity bypassed the physical armor and cooked the Spirit Core inside the Golem.
The Golem seized up. Smoke poured from its joints. It toppled over, lifeless, crashing inches from Zhang Wei.
The Aftermath
Zhang Wei collapsed. The spear clattered to the floor. His hands were burned black. His chest was heaving so hard it looked like his ribs would crack. He was unconscious before he hit the ground.
Lin Fan dropped down from the chandelier.
He looked at the smoking Golem. He looked at the unconscious boy.
"He short-circuited the Golem," Lin Fan muttered, scanning Zhang Wei. "And nearly stopped his own heart doing it. Suicidal."
Lin Fan walked over to the Spear. He picked it up with an insulated glove.
Item: Thunder Steel Spear. Status: Discharged.
"I have the blueprint," Lin Fan said. He looked at Zhang Wei. "And he earned the hardware."
He dropped the spear next to Zhang Wei's hand.
Just then, the sound of the front gate exploding echoed through the manor. Li Mu was tired of waiting.
"Time to go," Lin Fan said.
He fired a grappling line through the roof hole. As he ascended, he looked down one last time at the fallen Hero.
"Learn to drive, kid," Lin Fan whispered. "Next time, I won't be drawing aggro for you."
Lin Fan vanished into the night.